Idle musings by a once again bookseller, always bibliophile, current copyeditor, proofreader, and former cabin housekeeper/maintenance guy. Complete with ramblings about biblical studies, the ancient Near East, bicycling, gardening, or anything else I am reading (or experiencing). All live from the North Shore of Lake Superior

Friday, October 29, 2010

Not some committee or ecclesiastical hierarchy, but Jesus. The believers were put into action at His command; they were told to go, and they went. They knew what it meant to be a Christian, to become simply the suit of clothes that Jesus wears, so that the results would have only one possible explanation: Christ enthroned within the heart of every forgiven sinner.— The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me, page 162

In declaring that He, as Man, could do nothing without the Father (John 5:19), Christ demonstrated the truth that has always been true—that we as human beings can do nothing without Him. In the same way that the Father, as God, was indispensable to Christ as Man in His life on earth, Christ as God is now indispensable to us as human beings in our lives.— The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me, pages 168-169

<idle musing>I hope you have been encouraged/convicted by this series of excerpts. I know I was. I might have a final reflection early next week—we'll see what the weekend holds :)</idle musing>

<idle musing>I read, I believe it was in Elton Trueblood, that an Anglican bishop was reflecting that everywhere Paul went there was a riot or a revival, but everywhere he went they served tea. I know that N.T. Wright has used the saying, but I first read it back in the early 1970's, so it predates him.

Nevertheless, isn't that an accurate statement of the early church? What has happened?! — Lord! Deliver us from mediocrity and apathy!</idle musing>

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

"The true Christian life can be explained only in terms of Jesus Christ, and if your life as a Christian can still be explained in terms of you—your personality, your willpower, your gifts, your talents, your money, your courage, your scholarship, your dedication, your sacrifice, or your anything—then although you may have the Christian life, you are not yet living it."— The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me, pages 151-152

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

The 2500 workers at the Anowara Apparels factory in Bangladesh spend all day sewing jeans, primarily for the Faded Glory brand of clothes sold at Walmart. They are 90% young women, some with families to support and others trying to simply scrape a living together. The women make between 11 and 17 cents an hour sewing jeans, and they're expected to produce at least ten pairs an hour. That means they make less than two pennies for each pair of jeans they sew. Recognizing the gross underpayment of these workers, the Bangladeshi government has suggested raising the minimum wage to 35 cents an hour. Walmart has responded by lobbying against Bangladesh's efforts to fairly compensate workers and decided to keep their staff living in abject poverty.

<idle musing>I'm reminded of the passage in the book of James (5:4-6):

Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self–indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.

"You must act on what you have come to know and believe before it will ever become real in your experience, before you realize by personal experience that Jesus is alive not just in heaven but in you every moment of every day, as the Father was alive in Him. Then our actions will be the activity of faith."— The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me, page 134

To many pragmatic minds, this total repudiation of self-effort is abhorrent. The thought of it can result in a hostility borne of self-justification. Such people often are very dedicated in their desire to serve God, but they are baffled by the whole concept of a Christian life which is nothing more nor less than Jesus Christ Himself in action.— The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me, page 128

<idle musing>It is called the Christian life, after all...</idle musing>

Friday, October 22, 2010

As you know, I do a bit of cheese making. Consequently, one of the RSS feeds I subscribe to is a cheese making supply house. They post different recipes periodically. Today, they posted a recipe for—hold onto your hats—Velveeta™! Is nothing sacred? They don't even try to defend it:

Are you serious?

We are. Our official policy is that there is no law against consenting adults making Velveeta in the privacy of their own homes.

Yes, it's embarrassing, but the truth is that sometimes you want macaroni made with Velveeta, the way your mother made it. You're not alone and we're here to help you.

<idle musing>Don't expect me to be making it any time soon!</idle musing>

Thursday, October 21, 2010

"You may be thinking, “if such a life is totally of Him, though Him, and to Him, then where do I come in?” You do not. That is just where you go out! This is what Paul meant when he said, “For to me, to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21).

"Here was Paul dying to self [in II Corinthians], and this dying to self allowed him to hand the whole situation over to the One indwelling him, Jesus Christ, the God of resurrection power.

<idle musing>I love it: "dead people cannot die, and dead people do not have problems." That sums up our position in Christ! Of course, we can choose to wallow in our self-pity and problems, but that isn't who we really are in Christ.</idle musing>

Yep, five years ago today I started blogging; 1829 posts later, I'm still here. A lot of the people I was interacting with aren't blogging anymore, or sporadically at best. Some have moved about 4-5 times since then, falling prey to the evil Wordpress disease and abandoning the true faith :)

Anyway, I was looking back over some of the early posts today. I had just received my new road bike and was gushing forth about it. Five years later, I still love it and have put over 1300 miles on it. I've also burned out one bike commuting in the winter and am on the second year of another one. This one will probably last longer; the frame and wheels are aluminum, so they won't rust. The cables still need to be replaced each year, but $25.00/year is a lot cheaper than driving a car 11 miles a day to work!

The other thing that was preoccupying me was conference preparation. We have made great progress in that area. In fact, we had a meeting earlier this week and were commenting on how much less stress there is now than then. Basically, we just took all the tasks and spread them out over a few months so that no one month gets overwhelmed—usually! This year has a bit of a push to it with a catalog and a new mug, plus new bags, but its still a lot less stressful (others might disagree...).

I still am reading books and putting excerpts up on the blog. The nature of the books hasn't changed much, either. Does that mean I'm stable, or does it just mean I'm in a rut? Just an <idle musing>

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Suppose you were digging a hole, and I offered to give you a rest. How would I do it?

While you continued shoveling, I could call down a suggestion to you, such as, “Try tossing the dirt over your left shoulder instead of your right.” I could sing a song about digging, or discuss all the latest philosophical thinking that might relate to it.

Would any of that give you rest? No, it would more likely give you a heart attack!

Yet those approaches are very much like what today's Christianity tries to do to bring rest to struggling believers, all in vain.

How could I truly give you rest if you were in that hole digging? Obviously there is only one way: You must get out and let me get in. You must drop the spade and let me pick it up. You must quit and let me take over. You must vacate that hole in the ground so that I can occupy it.— The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me, pages 95-96

<idle musing>So simple, yet so difficult, isn't it? Just get out of the way and let God take over. But, we want to prove to God that we can do it! Don't bother; he already knows we will fail...</idle musing>

Monday, October 18, 2010

"If you are not yet prepared to do as you are told, no matter how weak or foolish it will make you look, then whatever you believe about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is still academic. You have not yet entered into the good of it."— The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me, page 73

<idle musing>I just re-read this without the context, and it sounds scary! He isn't talking about a mindless, obey the master, obedience; rather, he is discussing walking by faith in God. Think Abraham sacrificing Isaac; does that help? If you don't put legs to your faith, it is academic.</idle musing>

Friday, October 15, 2010

"Salvation is so much more than a change of destination from hell to heaven! The true spiritual content of our gospel is not just heaven one day, but Christ here and now In the economy of God, conversion is only an essential preliminary to discipleship, which is a lifetime of allowing Christ to live in you and do His work through you."— The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me, page 57

<idle musing>I've heard it described as not so much God getting us into heaven as God getting heaven into us. Either way, salvation is about the Kingdom of God—starting right now!</idle musing>

Thursday, October 14, 2010

"There is a lie that Satan continues to propagate today with signal success in the hearts of countless people. It is the notion that by giving themselves back to the God who made them, and by submitting themselves to His sovereignty, they will be robbed of that liberty which makes life really worth living. Such people are not necessarily insincere in this conviction, but are the victims of their own ignorance, which makes them dupes of the devil, whose greatest delight is exploiting that ignorance."— The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me, page 45

<idle musing>Kind of reminds me of a Randy Stonehill song from way back: "We are all like foolish puppets, who longing to be free now lie pitifully crippled after cutting their own strings..."</idle musing>

I know I'm biased, but I think I've got cute grandkids. Last night, I was talking to our son, Ryan, on the phone and he told me he was sending a picture of Evelyn. Sure enough, it was in the Inbox this morning. Here she is, about 18 months old:

And, lest any of Renee and Joel's kids feel shorted, here's a link to some great recent pictures of them. Too bad I can't link to beansprout yet, but he (?) isn't due for another few months...

I figured I could go one better, so I offered to have Eisenbrauns award a $50.00 gift certificate to the winner. Jim Getz came back with a strong contender. If you are on Twitter (yes, you, Jim and Nick!), you can follow the exchange. Personally, I thought he was going to give us the title of his dissertation :)

Anyway, head on over to Doug's blog and enter your most boring biblical studies/ANE title ever. I bet you can come up with one without to much trouble :) I'd offer one, but I'm kinda not eligible...

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

"The flesh will sing in the choir, teach Sunday school, preside at a deacons' meeting, preach from the pulpit, organize an evangelistic crusade, go to Bible college, volunteer for the mission field, and a thousand other things, all of which may in themselves be otherwise legitimate, if only it can keep its neck out of the noose. The flesh will threaten, shout, strut, domineer, sulk, plot, creep, beg, plead, or sob, whatever the situation may demand in the interests of its own survival. By any and all means it will seek to cause every Christian to live by his own strength instead of by the power and grace of the Lord Jesus, and to conclude that doing so is actually a good thing!"— The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me, page 42

<idle musing>As usual, we take the teachings of Jesus and turn them on their head...pick up your cross—Nope! That's for somebody else. I'll serve God by doing all these things, and to prove how spiritual I am, I'll do them in my own strength!</idle musing>

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

With a hearty hat tip to Tommy Wasserman for the choice of books, I managed to create a new 10-day sale. Here's the skinny from BookNews

BookNews from Eisenbrauns

With a special thank you to Tommy Wasserman at the Evangelical Textual Criticism (http://evangelicaltextualcriticism.blogspot.com/)blog for assistance in choosing the titles, Eisenbrauns is offering a 15-40% discount on selected New Testament textual criticism resources. As always, all sales on this web sale are final; no returns will be permitted. Offer is good only on orders placed at www.eisenbrauns.com through October 20, 2010.

The Holy Spirit always exposes the flesh for what it is, and there is nothing more infuriating to the carnally minded Christian than when those who are spiritually discerning remain unimpressed with him in spite of so much self-advertisement.— The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me, pages 40-41

My first exposure to Ian Thomas was back when I was in Madison, WI in the mid 1970s. I was attending the University of Wisconsin on an on-again-off-again basis; I was also involved in a house church there and one of the brothers had a series of tapes of sermons given by Ian Thomas.

So, on a trip that he and I took to see my sister, Dianne, in Omaha, we passed the time by listening to a number of them. Believe me, driving across Iowa, you need something :) Anyway, I liked what I heard and when this book was offered to me, I took it. By the way, it was a loaner from someone, not a freebie (disclosure necessary for the IRS).

The format of the book is a series of 53 short (2-2.5 page) reflections based on his ministry. Each is complete in itself, although they do build on each other somewhat. I will be posting some excerpts from it over the next week or so.

Their minds [carnal Christians] are still the plaything and the workshop of the devil, for the devil is smart enough and cunning enough that he can always persuade countless numbers of professing Christians to try and be Christians without Christ. They are willing to do anything for Jesus' sake, but they fail to understand that His presence is absolutely imperative to do it, that without Him we are nothing, have nothing, and can do nothing.— The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me, page 14

Friday, October 08, 2010

On my way to work today, I rode past a house that recently had been sold. The new owners have had a dumpster out front for a few days; each day there is a bit more stuff in it. But, today, I noticed that the beautiful dogwood that was in front of the house was gone. They had cut it down! All that was left was a pile of brush where it had once proudly bloomed every spring.

What madness! I can understand cutting a diseased or dying tree. I can understand cutting a tree that is too close to the house. But, to cut down a healthy tree, not even close to the foundation of the house? I can't fathom it—especially a dogwood!

This seems to be happening a good bit this summer. A few weeks ago, we were on a bike ride and went past what used to be a wooded lot. They had cut down about 20 oak trees, not small ones, either. A bit further on that same ride, we came around a corner and discovered that another grove of trees, along a lake/pond, had been cut down. And, further along on that same ride, we came to the top of a hill where there used to be a nice grove of trees around a house. The trees were cut off 6 feet from the ground! What madness is this?

Barclay Newman's revised Greek-English Dictionary arrived today. It was slated for a December release, so this is two months early. I was curious what the revisions were, so I thumbed through it. The most obvious change was the addition of roots in parentheses after a word and the splitting of the root from the prefixes; it reminded me of An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon. Personally, I like it, although others may not. As long as one doesn't try to use the root to shoehorn the definition, I find knowing the root of a word helpful; that is one feature of the middle Liddell I always liked.

The preface states that they checked the definitions, modifying some and clarifying others. In my quick review, I only noticed that some Greek phrases where the Greek had been abbreviated were now written out in full. The dictionary part itself is only 2 pages longer than the original version, so the revision couldn't have been too extensive.

They did add an appendix of sorts, "A Sampling of Some Greek NT Words That Share Similar Meanings." The preface warns it is incomplete, "more in the style of an enchiridion than an exhaustive study." The sampling is in English alphabetical order, a total of 67 English headings. I'm not sure what to make of it. It could be useful, but I fear that people who don't understand Greek might use it incorrectly. But then there is that danger with any tool.

Those who like the original dictionary will doubtless like this one and find it an improvement. Those who don't like the original will find little to dissuade them from their dislike. It is still a very concise dictionary with glosses and minimal context for those glosses. But, that is what it was designed as. Anyone wishing to gain a better understanding of a Greek word should always consult a larger lexicon with references and contexts to understand the semantic domain of the word.

Thursday, October 07, 2010

On Tuesday, with the nice crisp 30ºF weather, I was thinking about doing a short post on bicycle commuting in the winter. I figured that after a few winters of doing it, I might have learned something that would save somebody else some trouble. Well, I didn't get around to it (obviously!). I figured on doing it yesterday, but I ran into (literally) a problem—I got a flat tire on the way to work.

My initial response was, "No biggie; I've got a spare tube." I turned the bike upside down, removed the wheel and pulled the tube. OK, it took more time than that implies because the tube was quite stuck to the tire, but you get the idea. I fished the extra tube out of my rack trunk, noticing that it had a few patches on it. That's pretty common; I usually keep a tube until there are about 8-9 patches. I even recognized the most recent one from this spring. I also noted, again, that the tire was getting pretty thin. Time to replace it; tires usually only last 2 years on my bike.

I put the tube in; reseated the tire, attached the pump, and started pumping. And pumping. And pumping. I know that the little portable pump on my bike has a small capacity, but this was crazy. Sure enough, the spare tube had a leak! Now what? I was about 2 miles from home and 3.5 miles from work, on a country road.

I suppose I could have tried to repair one of the tubes on the spot, but trying to find a leak in a tube can be a real pain without a bucket of water. I only do that if I have to. Instead, I opted to walk the 2 miles home. After all, it was a beautiful fall day. So, I walked home, exchanged my road bike for the winter commuter, called work to let them know what was going on, and rode in.

I was about an hour late, but the time outside was a nice extra :) Maybe I shouldn't be giving advice to others on commuting. What do you think?

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

I was at Lowe's last night and is my wont, I perused the latest Mother Earth News. I don't subscribe to it, but always look it over. I've been known to buy them if enough articles are helpful. Anyway, there was an article about systemic pesticides. Huh? I'll let them explain it:

In conventional food production systems, not all pesticides remain on a plant’s exterior. Systemic pesticides are chemicals that are actually absorbed by a plant when applied to seeds, soil or leaves. The chemicals then circulate through the plant’s tissues, killing the insects that feed on them. Use of these pesticides on food crops began in 1998, and has steadily increased during the past 10 years. Unlike with traditional insecticides, you can’t wash or peel off systemic pesticide residues because they’re in the plant’s tissues, not on their exteriors.

<idle musing>Yikes! That just makes me more convinced than ever that we are killing ourselves. I'm glad I have a garden. The article goes on to state that they don't really know the effect yet and that there are studies being done. It also lists some of the pesticides and what plants they use them on.</idle musing>

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

"When churches succumb to the temptation to join an established order and share in temporal power, they soon become part of the world and cease to be relevant to the kingdom. What Christian revivals do is shake up the system and pluralize power. They create communities of counter power and religious choice."— Global Awakening, page 212

<idle musing>Jesus said something about salt losing its savor, didn't he? Revival shakes up the salt and makes it savory again. May God have mercy on his church and send it frequently!</idle musing>

Sunday night's frost was minor enough that I didn't lose anything except a few leaves on some plants along the outside edge of the garden. But, it was a wake-up call, preparing me to take precautions for last night.

I checked the temperature at 9:00 PM, it was 49º F. I checked again at a little before midnight; it was 40º F and clear. If it had been cloudy, the temperature would have stabilized. But, because it was clear, I knew the temperature was headed toward a hard freeze. So, I turned on the garden light on the back of the garage (I installed it about 2 weeks ago for such nights), grabbed the row cover that I just got from Pine Tree Seeds two weeks before, and headed for the garden. Oh, I grabbed a bag of clothes pins, too.

I mainly covered the tomatoes and peppers. Because the tomatoes are all on hog feeder panels (4 feet high), I had to use two sections of row cover per bed (the row cover is 6 feet wide). I attached the top to the panels with clothes pins and staked the bottom in with garden staples. As I worked, my fingers got quite cold.

When I looked at it from the outside of the garden, it looked almost ghostly with the white row cover draped all over the plants. It was at varying heights, as the peppers are shorter than the tomatoes. A picturesque sight in the semi-darkness of the bug lights.

This morning, I was glad I had done all that work. It was 34º F by the house and well below that in the garden. I had covered some marigolds in the front yard. When I removed the cover from them, it was stiff with frost. I decided to leave the garden covered :)

A bit early this year, like 2 weeks! This morning, I woke up to frost on the lawn. I wasn't quite ready for that yet. I put the cover on the greenhouse over the weekend, but didn't have all the row cover ready yet. I guess I shouldn't have listened to the weatherman when he said no frost :(

Oh well. We'll see what survived when I get home tonight. I'm hoping for more green peppers. That's about the only thing I don't have enough of right now. It would be nice to get some more tomatoes for fresh eating, too. But if they didn't make it, I have enough canned.

Speaking of tomatoes, last year I read that you can take a cutting of a tomato and bring it inside for the winter. If you place it in a big pot with potting soil and give it a gro-lite™, it will bear. So, yesterday, I took a cutting of a cherry tomato and did just that. We'll see what happens...

The only thing I'm really worried about is the kohlrabi, beets, and bunching onions that have just come up. I put a cold frame over them, but didn't close the cover. We'll see how cold-hardy they really are!

Riding to work this morning was beautiful, though. The mist was rising off the lakes as I rode by. The air was nice and crisp; the sun was just peaking over the horizon. I love this time of year!

Friday, October 01, 2010

Well, the garden is winding down for the season. On Tuesday night, Jim and Shannon came over and we dug the potatoes. Not that we really had to dig; they were straw potatoes, so it was more a matter of removing the straw and checking the first 2 inches of dirt.

We harvested around 30-40 pounds. Not bad for a trial run of 6 pounds of seed potatoes. I will definitely do straw potatoes again next year—and increase the number, too. In case you are wondering, straw potatoes are simply seed potatoes placed on the surface of the ground and covered with 3-6 inches of straw.

In this case, we put them on 6 inches of leaf mold (partially decayed leaves). The resulting compost when we dug the potatoes was marvelously black, much nicer than the compost I get from the city. I'm definitely looking forward to more home made compost!

In other news, we picked the last watermelon. It was 18 inches long by 10 inches in diameter, weighing in around 20 pounds. Nice and sweet, but not as good as the ones from July; our hot, dry August and September definitely affected the flavor.

The fall planting of peas is in bloom. I ate the first fall radish earlier this week, the spinach is getting close to big enough to eat, and the fall planting of bunching onions (green onions) is showing itself. I definitely need to get the top on the greenhouse this weekend; they are predicting 35º F for Sunday.

These [1998 Chinese house church] documents reject the Marxist master narrative of a religion as a poison or opiate, the European master narrative of the church as a department of the state seeking to provide sacred canopy under which national life is conducted, as well as the American master narrative of capitalism and unfettered individualism.

Their new story is an older and more global story. Part of the new narrative apologetic is crafting a new story about a heroic struggle against two dominate powers of a state church and a totalitarian state. as such the house churches are tapping into the traditional narrative resources used by Luke in Acts and Eusebius in his history of the church in the first three centuries...

While formal treatises to government officials seemed futile in the second and third centuries, they did accomplish two things. Christianity increased its popular appeal even as it maximized the conditions of growth by ensuring that government opposition as episodic rather than sustained.— Global Awakening, pages 195-196

<idle musing>I like the first paragraph, showing the shortcomings of the 3 main meta-narratives people have to choose from. There is a fourth: The kingdom of God; what a strangely biblical idea :)</idle musing>